The butterfly and the Cocoon
Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2005 5:52 am
This is a story told to me from a close friend regarding how sometimes helping someone can actually cripple them.
There once was a young boy walking down a dirt road on a bright summer day. During his journey he came upon a small blossom tree. He stopped to take in the beauty of the blossoms and noticed a cocoon hanging from one of the branches.
As he crept closer to this cocoon he noticed movement coming from it. He carefully brushed the leaves aside and seen a butterfly was beginning to break free of the cocoon and seemingly appeared to be having problems.
The boy plucked the surrounding leaves and began to carefully spread the cocoon open to help the new butterfly break free from what he called it's "prison".
As he finally broke the cocoon open, the butterfly fell to the ground. He stood by silently watching it for a moment and when it did not fly away, he picked it up and placed it back upon the branch it had fallen from. Only to witness it once more fall to the ground, this time apparently breaking one of it's wings.
The boy was so upset by this that he picked the butterfly up and ran home with it as fast as he could. When he got home he showed the butterfly to his mother and explained what had occurred, hoping his mother could save the young butterfly.
The mother sat the boy down, comforting him, and said:
"Nature created this butterfly's cocoon in order to help make it stronger. What you viewed as it struggling, was nature's way of helping to strengthen it's muscles and wings, so that it may break free of this cocoon one day soon and fly free and strong. By breaking open the cocoon, even though you meant well, it did not allow this butterfly to become strong enough to fly away on it's own."
Each person has their own cocoon to break free from, some cocoons taking longer to break than others. Sometimes helping someone we care for is not always the best way to help them. By doing so we may inadvertably rob them of a life lesson they need to become strong enough to face more difficult challenges in the future on their own.
If you truly love someone and wish to help them in their time of need, sometimes the best way is not to break them free of their cocoon, but rather to support them and allow them their own lessons in life.
There once was a young boy walking down a dirt road on a bright summer day. During his journey he came upon a small blossom tree. He stopped to take in the beauty of the blossoms and noticed a cocoon hanging from one of the branches.
As he crept closer to this cocoon he noticed movement coming from it. He carefully brushed the leaves aside and seen a butterfly was beginning to break free of the cocoon and seemingly appeared to be having problems.
The boy plucked the surrounding leaves and began to carefully spread the cocoon open to help the new butterfly break free from what he called it's "prison".
As he finally broke the cocoon open, the butterfly fell to the ground. He stood by silently watching it for a moment and when it did not fly away, he picked it up and placed it back upon the branch it had fallen from. Only to witness it once more fall to the ground, this time apparently breaking one of it's wings.
The boy was so upset by this that he picked the butterfly up and ran home with it as fast as he could. When he got home he showed the butterfly to his mother and explained what had occurred, hoping his mother could save the young butterfly.
The mother sat the boy down, comforting him, and said:
"Nature created this butterfly's cocoon in order to help make it stronger. What you viewed as it struggling, was nature's way of helping to strengthen it's muscles and wings, so that it may break free of this cocoon one day soon and fly free and strong. By breaking open the cocoon, even though you meant well, it did not allow this butterfly to become strong enough to fly away on it's own."
Each person has their own cocoon to break free from, some cocoons taking longer to break than others. Sometimes helping someone we care for is not always the best way to help them. By doing so we may inadvertably rob them of a life lesson they need to become strong enough to face more difficult challenges in the future on their own.
If you truly love someone and wish to help them in their time of need, sometimes the best way is not to break them free of their cocoon, but rather to support them and allow them their own lessons in life.
